There have been enormous increases in the global demand for electricity today. The electricity system is based primarily on coal-fired power stations, natural gas fired power stations and nuclear plants which operate continually and cannot be turned on and off at short notice. Since electricity cannot be stored on a large scale, it must be produced and brought to consumers at the very time it is needed. Electricity supplies are usually in shortage in-peak hours (e.g., daytime). On the other hand, the electricity supplies in off-peak time (e.g., overnight) are abundant.
To make use of the continual power, the power companies try to encourage people to use electricity overnight. Supplying in-peak electricity is costly, thus prices are set to incite consumers to shift their load outside peak hours, making off-peak power cheaper. Here are some of the main reasons for the high cost of in-peak electricity. Transmission bottlenecks: most generating plants are far from cities; if the peak demand is larger than the capacity of transmission lines bringing electricity to cities, suppliers must use closer power generators during peak hours—most often very expensive gas-fired plants. Transmission equipment cost: power lines are very expensive and must be large enough to sustain the maximum peak demand; shifting demand to off-peak hours delays installation of new transmission equipment by electricity suppliers and reduce their operating costs. Off-peak electricity may also be cheaper because some types of generators, like nuclear plants, must produce maximum power 24 hours a day during their entire lifespan; lots of electricity thus gets produced off-peak and must be sold, even at lower prices. It would gain a great deal of relevance to solving problems of energy shortage and reducing environmental pollution produced by the electricity generation if the electricity generated in the off-peak time could be massively stored and transmitted back to electricity grids at need.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.